Bird Island Blogging

I took this picture this afternoon. Don't you wish you knew where this was? I'll give you a hint...it was underwater.

OK, it was the Bird Island Sanctuary...and sorry to have to tell you this, but you're not allowed to fish, hunt, or gather any species there.

That didn't stop someone from illegally harvesting and eating these trochus (locally these guys are called aliling):

These actually might not have been trochus. There is a possibility that they were hermit crabs that a fisherman used for bait. Either way, taking any species while in the Bird Island Sanctuary is illegal. The fine for taking any species from the Bird Island Sanctuary is $500 and up to one year in jail. That is one hefty fine for just a scooby snack. I recommend not fishing there; bring a sandwich.

I also want to share this photo of a small pandanus tree:

When we were planting pandanus up at the Lao Lao Revegetation site, the CNMI Forestry guys told us that coconut crabs like to hang out in these trees. I guess they were right. (Coconut crabs are the largest species of hermit crab; these guys may or may not be coconut crabs, we won't know until they are larger).